|
Auckland Baptist Tramping Club MAUNGATAUTURI MOSEY Waikato 23 -25 July |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| For a fullsize picture click on the thumbnail |
|
Friday We left The Bracken as usual after 6:15pm and stopped for munchies in Ngaruawahia, then on to a member's house on the western outskirts of Hamilton. Rain was falling on and off for the whole journey. Another club member whose home was five minutes by car away, helped with putting four of us up at her place, while the rest settled in chez Gail. Saturday We had to be up at 6:45am for a 7:45am departure, and a look out the window confirmed that the cloudy-weather option of Te Kauri Park was to be flagged. Maungatauturi was definitely on, and what we would see from the top would be well worth the effort. There were two options - climb Maungatauturi from Hicks Road and cross over to Pukeatua Summit thence down to Pukeatua, a harder option led by David, and climb Pukeatua Summit from the Pukeatua end returning the same way, an easier option led by John. Everybody went to Hicks Road, where the first option trampers started, then the cars were driven with the rest of the group to Pukeatua. The cross-over group started by following the markers across private farm land - only to be stopped by an angry farmer about an hour later! Apparently a police group organising a cross-country run a while ago had put the markers there, with the farmer’s permission, to mark the route and the markers had not been removed. The farmer directed us back on the right route and after another hour were at the summit of Maungatauturi ready for lunch. This was an easy climb through bush with boardwalks at the top - but to see any view they had to climb up onto the trig station. The main view was eastwards towards the Mamaku and Kaimai ranges. The cross-over track connecting the Maungatauturi and Pukeatua summits had overgrown considerably since the Club did this in 1988. Then, the track had freshly been re-cut, with a two-metre wide cleared path; now it was rougher with many slippery patches but still easy to follow. There was one major downhill followed by uphill, and they reached Pukeatua about 2pm. The Pukeatua trampers started after leaving the cars on a farm track on an unformed legal part of Turi Road, the cars having been bogged down by a muddy track. We could see what looked like a tiny white cloud on the horizon behind us - a look through the binoculars revealed that the “cloud” was in fact the top of Ruapehu resplendent in snow. The first half hour was a gentle but steady climb through bush, then it got steeper with a number of hand-and-foot scrambles, some of these quite tricky. After about one-and-a-half hours we came out to Rocky Spur, an excellent place to stop for lunch. We had a panoramic view looking out east-south-west, a real parade of places the Club had been to in the last couple of years - Tongariro (March last year), Rangitoto Range (last September), Pirongia (just two months ago), Mt Egmont (just six weeks ago), Titiraupenga (about this time last year) - plus Ruapehu, Lake Arapuni and the steaming Kinleith paper mills. Beyond Rocky Spur the track dropped steeply to climb once more up to Pukeatua summit. Near the top a section of track had been wrecked by a storm and this part was not tricky but just about impossible. We ended up climbing what looked like a side track then bushcrashing across to rejoin the main track. A side track brought us to the summit. The view from Pukeatua was not nearly as good as from Rocky Spur, but we were still able to see Ruapehu and its two sisters, and Mt Egmont. There was also a vantage point looking out to the Matamata basin with the Kaimai Ranges behind and another Club-visited mountain - Te Aroha, climbed in August last year and due to be climbed four weeks hence. (That trip was subsequently postponed due to bad weather) As the Pukeatua group began to descend, the cross-over group arrived and had a look at the summit. Both groups stopped at Rocky Ridge, and as we sat looking out across to Pirongia and the surrounding countryside David read from Psalm 121:1-3 and reminded us that our help comes from the One who created all this. Reading from a Derek Prince devotional, he said that God helps and looks after us even when we don’t ask Him, just as an infant child cradled in his father’s arms is supported by him even when he does not clutch his dad’s lapel. It was 3pm when everybody started the descent to tramp’s end at Turi Road, where the cars had been left - about an hour later we were all out and getting ready to travel back to Hamilton via an icecream stop at Karapiro. Gail served up a lovely dinner back at her place, then we went to Margaret’s home to soak in the spa pool and watch the All Blacks/Wallabies Bledisloe Cup match live from Eden Park, the first test rugby to be played under Eden Park’s new floodlights. The Kiwis thrashed the Aussies 34:15. Sunday Sleep in - up 7:45am for departure at 8:45am, this time for Hamilton Gardens and a walk along the two banks of the Waikato River. We parked the cars in the main parking area of the gardens and walked through the gardens (unfortunately it was winter and not too spectacular) then under and across Cobham Bridge. A concrete path wove through a large grassed area between the river and Cobham Drive, then we walked along Hillsborough Terrace to the rowing club near the second bridge, the Victoria Bridge. There were groups of rowers out on the river training. The Victoria Bridge was an impressive structure, being supported by a massive girder arch reaching to just below the road at the top. John told of how he watched a teenage boy about ten years ago cross the bridge by climbing up the arch from this end. When he reached the top of the arch he walked along a pipeline running just below the road, then clambered down the arch at the other end. However, in recent years, the council had erected high fences at both ends of the arch to try and stop this dangerous practice. We carried along a wide walkway skirting the bank of the Waikato River, and when we reached Claudelands Bridge (actually a road bridge and a rail bridge side by side) we took a break at McDonalds nearby for elevenses. Then we rejoined the walkway to carry on past Whitiora Bridge and arrive at the ornate Fairfield Bridge. John told us how he, as a tiny kid, called this bridge the Bridge With Mountains, referring to the three tall arches on either side of the road deck of the bridge. There was no track on the other (east) side of the river at this point - we had to road-bash, but had a look at a riverside reserve, and also the Pine Beach reserve which culminated in a steep scramble up a clay bank to get back to the road just under the Whitiora Bridge. Nelson was fascinated by the concrete construction of this 1978-built bridge and had a closer look at it. We stopped for lunch in a sunny spot at Pirana Park just beyond the Claudelands Bridge, and were able to share it with hordes of hungry sparrows that quickly scurried to the nearest tree once a solitary magpie swooped down to test the morsels! They would return once the magpie took off, and as we watched them at this riverside spot our thoughts were turned to our Creator and Provider as David read from Psalm 36. The verses he read referred to how God lets us drink from the rivers of His delights. He pointed out that the delights are those of God - wholesome things such as enjoying His beauty and creation - and not of man such as smoking and drinking that lead to illness and destruction. The riverside track on the east bank of the Waikato River started at this point, and we followed it past the old barge Rangiriri, now restored as a picnic area, the wharf of the Waipa Delta tourist paddleboat, and around the riverside reserve back to Cobham Bridge to finish back at the Hamilton Gardens carpark. We were out by 1:30pm - and back at The Bracken by the unusually early time of 4pm! COST: Whole time - $40 (travel $20, food $10, accommodation $10) |